Need opinion on a new printer

[SRTDodge05]

Ive always used products for printers and scanners. My parts hp office all in one printer just failed. Thats the third hp all in one printer that fail within the 4 years. So i started looking around for printers and reviews dont seem that real good on any printer. Ive been looking more and more at the canon all in one printers and i found the mx700 which seems to be nice. I would like to have a printer with either and network port or wireless. Printer is going to be used pretty much for pictures and scanning, we have a laser for all the other stuff.


Whats your opinion on a printer?

[Deer Slayer]

Do you know what keeps happening to your printers??? I've had an all in one HP (5610) for 3 years now, and my ma's all in one (750c) is 7 years old. Do you do a lot of printing??? My brother gave me mine for christmas a while back because he had the same one. I even figured out how to fax with it without the directions! I dunno, I've always had GREAT luck with HP. Lexmark is another story, I got so mad @ the old one after the $20 ink cartridges plugged up for about the 100th time, I put my fist into it! Plastic flew all over the place, it even sparked, except for the fact it cut my hand pretty bad, it was cool! After that I threw it on the floor, and smashed it the rest of the way like they did to the fax machine in office space. Never did I feel so good about breaking something, except for maybe when I shot the P4S8X motherboard. Anyways, enough on that, cannon is pretty good from what I've heard, never had any personal experience though.

[DBoone]

I've always had great experience with HP too. Probably wouldn't buy anything else.

[fvbounty]

I've has a HP Photosmart C6150 for a few months now on the recommendation from a friend and it is wireless or wired, I have it hooked to my D-Link router with a cat 5 and it works great with all my computers, and whats really nice is it hardly uses any ink, my Cannon Prixma 8500 makes Great pictures but drinks ink like a Drunk! The scanner works good and the 6x4 photo tray is great, when you print a photo it automatically goes in and delivers the paper without touching it!

[Bofinn]

Canon Pixma - the first printer that I've never had a problem with!

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by Bofinn

Canon Pixma - the first printer that I've never had a problem with!

Me either, does your use a lot of ink?

[wonderwrench]

Both Canon and Epson take time to warm up before they start printing. HP does not have this problem. HP uses cartridges with the print heads built in. Canon and Epson do not. If you do not want to wait to print each time HP is the way to go. If you can wait Canon gets my vote, I love my i850.

If you want your prints to last near forever Epson is the only game in town. They have the best ink. It holds up much better when exposed to light for long periods of time. Things I do not like about Epson is their quality can very greatly model to model, year to year. Needs warm up time. Their drivers and support over the years suck compared HP and Canon.

The only thing that bugs me with HP is that on their all in one models a minimal install forces a massive software install. Over 700 megs of junk was installed on one I setup for a friend last Christmas. A full install was only 200 megs more. You can download a smaller package but you loose some functionality. They are not very forthcoming about what is lost. No network support for a model F4280 plus who knows what.

Also note that the cost per page is usually higher on low cost models as the ink carts hold less ink but cost as much as carts with 2 to 3 times more ink in them. It is not as easy to nail down as it should be. In the past HP cart numbers related to the quantity of ink in them. A 41 had twice the ink of a 21 etc. This may not be the case any longer. If cost per print matters much research needs to be done.

My 2cents

[DBoone]

Here's a high quality photo printer with prints that will last extremely well.

Buy HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer(Q5736A#ABA) direct from the HP Home & Home Office Store

[Bofinn]

Originally Posted by fvbounty

Me either, does your use a lot of ink?

I don't really print that much these days...

But I've never had to clean the heads like I did on my last 2 Epsons...

[TQ]

Dang...I have three HP printers. They're tanks. I finally gave one of them away that I'd been using since the 1990's.

Currently I have a 4215 All-in-One and a 7960. Both work great.

[SRTDodge05]

One we have know everytime we print it jams no matter what paper we use and its one of the slowest printers ive used. Second and hp we had the scanner broke and had a power short inside. Third one failed to read the ink and couldnt print.

[mtek]

canon gets my vote

[Cogar]

I agree with the others that HP is good (although maybe not perfect). Most of their printers are getting really cheap, and they will tend to fail a lot more now than when they sold for 10x as much 8-10 years ago. HP also usually has good driver support for both Windows and Linux, although there are exceptions in their product line. Further, wonderwrench is correct--the Windows HP driver/utility applications are gigantic. I think you can install many games in less time.

I should add that we also have an Epson photo printer that is a few years old, which has been reliable and seems to have good driver support as well. Of course, YMMV, but I would not hesitate to purchase one of these either.

I am not stating any model numbers since Epson and (especially) HP pump out so many printer models that it would be hard to keep up. Some things you need to buy on faith.

[klc314]

I would have to agree that HP for years has provided reliable printers. I recently purchased an Epson, but will use it for photo printing, and keep using the HP for all business related printing.

[johnrr6]

Two HP All In Ones----and I agree----they are like tanks....they never fail.

I really like my latest.....

HP Photosmart 6180 All-in-One.....

Small, elegant, does it all, networkable both wired and wireless, uses the vivera ink system that seems to be a tad cheaper.

And easy to understand and use....

In fact----now that I think about it----both the HP All in Ones that I have owned have been the ONLY pieces of technology I have ever bought that worked----right out of the box----with absolutly NO hassles----with the included drivers and software----and actually did everything it's manuafacturer claimed it could do....

And have lasted......